LETTERS: No need to vote
To the Editor:
The landfill vote recently carried out in Marion was a good example of the folly of voting. The result didn't reveal where the majority of residents stand and as such was not decisive.
If the political leaders should be concerned about anything, they should be concerned about the 52 percent of registered voters who didn't vote, not with the minority who are deadset against the landfill and don't even want commissioners to investigate the feasibility of it.
(Is it possible to assume that those who did not vote expect the leaders to do the right thing for the taxpayers? If the 17 or 18 percent who voted to pursue the landfill is added to the 58 percent who gave consent by silence, the vote to pursue actually was 75 percent.)
Whether the vote is about issues or political positions, the result is always the same. Leaders lead by a minority because they are out of touch with the majority.
In my opinion, the issue is that people have no faith that their leaders will act in their behalf. Many don't see government as something that benefits them. They want a government that will protect their rights as individuals and businessmen to work and conduct business and to enjoy the reward of their labor.
Instead, the opposite is true. Government takes from people and in every way, yes, in every way, is constantly pursuing new methods to get more of their income for itself. Then, after providing generous wages and benefits for itself, it turns around and gives money to welfare people and social causes, telling them it is the government's money.
This is a disservice to the taxpayer as well as to these dependents. The least our leaders could do is to constantly tell these people the truth, that these dollars come from hardworking people who have one, two, or maybe three different jobs, working hard to provide for themselves.
I sometimes wonder how much of our tax dollars goes just to pay government employees and their benefits? When I go to the courthouse to pay taxes, I find it bulging with employees. That's also what I'm paying for — more and more employees, more and more paper work, more and more taxing.
Now, someone needs to tell me how I can vote so that I have control over my taxes or that my taxes benefit me. We are told to vote in order to have good government. Is good government more regulations, more taxes, more infringements on my right and responsibility to provide for myself? Is good government more involvement in my life, more jobs and benefits for itself, more support of non-productive causes? Is this what I am supposed to vote for? Isn't the best voting not to vote at all?
Our ancestors fled from other governments to come to this country to be free men, to have pride in providing for themselves and their families. Now, our government through time has eroded that away and has set itself up as a dictator of our lives to make us dependent. So people have lost faith in their leaders.
I haven't registered or voted for 30 years and I will continue to make my statement: Government is not a benefit to the people; it is a usurper of the people's liberties and rights to pursue their own life. By virtue of the nature of government, there's no way you can vote for good government. In my opinion, all you can do is make a statement by not voting.
Jerry Plett
Lincolnville
